With a presence as intense as it is captivating, it is little wonder that Jon Aeydn King is as dynamic as his writings. With two books already under his belt, he returns with PostHuman Blaze, an illustrated photography and what he is terming a ‘future download’ poetry book. I pulled back the curtain to take a closer look at the powerful narrative web he weaves in his work.
A ball of uncontained energy, Jon is a story-teller by nature and it is this aspect of himself that primarily motivates him to give birth to his topsy-turvy tales of dark beauty.
“This book, more than any of the others, came out thanks to an overwhelming urge for me to explain things. As a person, I feel this physical need to explain everything around me and what I’m seeing.
“This feeling is so very intense that when I don’t give in to it, it almost feels like I’m going to explode from the inside because my fight becomes internalised. I feel this burning want to utilise what skills I have,” he says, adding that he considers his writing as a craft of passion, a spilling out of imagery that happens very quickly.
“I just have this uncontrollable desire to put a lens on things. I want to explain that which goes beyond the surface.”
Divided into three parts, PostHuman Blaze is Jon’s love letter to the truth, where he does not shy away from shining a torch on all the rawness and grittiness that many would usually feel inclined to shy away from.
“I think when people read my work they are either going to get a sense of relief and empathy or they are going to be triggered by it. Either way, I would like for this to be the start of a switch. Maybe it is my background as a video producer but I have written many poems where the reader gets this sense of seeing a scene take place.”
He describes one poem, about kissing in their ball gowns, where the reader is able to see everything unfold in front of him.
“My lens narrows and focuses on things and makes the reader a voyeur, because I think it’s important to bring to light scenes that are not usually focused on. I’m interested in peeping behind walls, curtains and veils. I want to know what’s happening behind the scenes because that is reality.”
Jon’s creative process when arriving at the very heart of things is nothing if not multi-layered.
“For me, writing is a very spiritual journey. I am meditative and I focus very much on allowing thoughts to develop. You can’t be overloaded if you want to be able to absorb. There are three or four people from whom I get direct feedback, which is great because their reactions are so very different from each other. With every book there’s different visual imagery, but the same desire to be artistic and to tell a story.”
Jon ascribes the placeless and genderless slants he uses in his work to his background in psychology.
“There is a balance between male and female and I have an honest preference not to specify pronouns. When I was doing my Bachelors in Psychology, a lecturer made me aware of the impact that pronouns can have, and I think part of the reason why I don’t specify gender is that it became habitual for me not to think in terms of male or female. It’s not conscious, but it has become part of my style. To be honest, for me this piece of work is far more about responding to a higher calling than about specific gender.”
So how would he describe this higher calling? “I want the work to be a trigger for people to be forward thinkers. We are all called to answer to something greater, and if we fall prey to our base urges of money and sex, we will get lost. It’s not money and sex in themselves which are the problem, but the mindset behind them. We are all here on borrowed time and we will only be able to change things for the better if we are willing and able to respond to our own post-human shift. We can do better with the time we have been given.”
PostHuman Blaze will be launched on December 11 at 7pm at Rumours Pietà Boċċi Club. The event is open to the public.
www.jonaedynking.com